The core lab program allows researchers to compete for reagents and consumables valued at up to USD 10,000, provided by Illumina, in support of their research endeavors by submitting project information online. An online questionnaire is hosted by Illumina and has been designed to gather basic information about projects and the researchers behind them. Information will be assessed, and a winner selected, by the CPGR.

The CPGR will support projects as follows: (i) the winning project will not be charged a service fee, in addition to receiving reagents and consumables valued up to USD 10k; (ii) the second and third ranked projects will be offered a 25% and 15% discount (off the total project fee), respectively.

Conditions for participation are as follows: researchers must be based in and projects conducted in South Africa, and carried out at the CPGR; projects can make use of the prize money as a sole or augmentative funding of reagents and consumables; ready-to-go projects will be given preference; projects submitted by PDI researchers will be given preference.

The CPGR is a non-profit company located in Cape Town, South Africa, based on an initiative by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and financially supported by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA). The CPGR combines state-of-the-art information-rich genomic and proteomic (‘omics’) technologies with bio-computational pipelines to render services and support projects in the life science and biomedical arena in (South) Africa, all run in an ISO 9001:2015 certified and ISO 17025 compliant quality management system.

Among others, the CPGR has recently launched an accelerator program to stimulate the creation of South African start-ups based on ‘omics’ technologies and set up Artisan Biomed to develop and implement Precision Medicine solutions in (South) Africa. The organization uses the open-source Baobab LIMS for sample and data tracking; and, it has recently implemented a DRAGEN platform to enhance the development and execution of high-speed/high-volume NGS data-sets. CPGR also hosts DIPLOMICS, a large infrastructure program initiated by the DST. In December 2017, CPGR entered into a partnership with the Sunflower Fund to enhance stem cell donor typing in Africa.

In support of Genomics capacity development in Africa, CPGR has launched an iScan system for high-end genotyping studies in early 2018. In April 2018, CPGR announced a new partnership to form a bespoke African biotech incubator, OneBio.